Rivals in the art of abuse
Do not know peace among yourself;
Bring tribute to the gloomy glory, And revel in the enmity!
Let the world freeze before you
Marveling at the formidable celebrations:
No one will regret you
Nobody will bother you.
A. S. Pushkin
Military affairs at the turn of the eras. The history of cuirassiers ended quite late, namely in 1914, when the last cuirassiers, French, showed their complete ineffectiveness in the new conditions. But this took a long time - more than 200 years, when the cavalry of the cuirassiers, which replaced the men at arms of the 17th century, became the main striking force of the generals on the battlefields. But the fact is that, due to their cost, it was precisely the cuirassiers that were not the "main cavalry" of the war. There were many types of cavalry, which solved their problems and even, it happened, fought with cuirassiers in equestrian combat. Today we will begin to get acquainted with the most massive types of cavalry - the enemies of cuirassiers, in different countries, at different times and with all their national characteristics …
As it was already noted here in one of the previous materials of the cycle, Peter I, creating the Russian regular army, made all his cavalry dragoon, and used the Cossacks as light cavalry. However, it turned out that by the time the first regiments of the new army appeared, the first Russian regular dragoon regiment … already existed. And it was formed even before the beginning of the Northern War on September 1, 1698, and not from people of ordinary rank, but from noblemen and gentry ignoramuses, Moscow servicemen and even tsar's entourage. Avtonom Mikhailovich Golovin was appointed commander of the regiment. And since the dragoons were stationed in the village of Preobrazhenskoye, the new regiment received the same name. There were four companies in the regiment, and in 1700 there were already 12 companies. True, one cannot say that he made an excellent impression. The fact is that his riders were armed with what: whoever got what weapon, served with it! True, the treasury gave them 1000 sabers and some fuze, but it is clear that the latter were not enough for everyone, and the soldiers themselves bought everything else. The same was the case with horse ammunition. Saddles were used very different, as, indeed, and horses … Well, then things went much faster. In 1700, besides Preobrazhensky, two more of the same regiments were formed, and by the end of the year there were 12 of them in the Russian army.
The defeat at Narva also played an important role in the development of the Russian cavalry. Prior to that, Peter still counted on irregular and local cavalry units. But they showed their complete non-combat capability. And he abandoned the concept of irregular units and over the years of his reign created … 32 dragoon regiments!
At first, the regiments of Russian dragoons were named after their commanders. Then, after 1708, the regiments were named after the places of their creation and recruitment. Each regiment, in fact, was an analogue of an infantry regiment and consisted of 10 companies of 120 people each. Each regiment also had three three-pound guns. In 1704, a company of 140 grenadiers was added to the dragoon regiments; in 1711 they were organized into three regiments of mounted grenadiers.
During the Great Northern War (1700-1721), Peter had two large dragoon formations: the first, under the command of Menshikov, consisted of 11 regiments, the second, under the command of General Golitsyn, of 10. Thus, the tsar had two large units at his disposal. mounted infantry, armed with its own artillery and everything necessary for independent action in the vast Russian expanses.
Surprisingly, it is a proven fact that Russian dragoons and their horses suffered surprisingly little losses from exhaustion, disease or cold weather during hostilities and long campaigns throughout the Northern War! So the concept of dragoon cavalry in Russia at that time completely justified itself!
Interestingly, in everything related to military fashion, Peter was guided exclusively by the West and, in particular, France. And it should be noted that he had reasons for doing this. Indeed, reforms similar to those that he himself carried out were started there almost earlier than in all other European countries. Thus, the first French regular units were formed at the beginning of the 17th century. The first seven cavalry regiments were created in 1635; by 1659, their number had grown to 112. Around 1668, their number leveled off to about 80. Interestingly, although the regiment commander was a colonel, every officer of the regiment, including himself, headed one of the companies, so there were companies of the colonel, lieutenant colonel, major and captain. The first three regiments were considered guards, and from the fourth to the thirteenth from 1672 they were called royal regiments: the 4th royal, the 5th, and so on. According to the rules of 1690, the royal regiments and regiments formed with the money of the nobility were allowed blue uniforms with red cuffs on the sleeves, while all others had gray uniforms and also red cuffs. Only units of the Life Guards (Maison du Roi) could wear red uniforms, which made them stand out among all the others. The dragoons' armament consisted of a carbine hanging from a sling, two pistols and a broadsword.
The regiments were at first rather small in number and only at the beginning of the 18th century did they become real tactical formations for the battlefield.
The first grenadiers also appeared in France during the Thirty Years' War as part of the musketeer units. In each unit, several of the most daring soldiers were selected to attack the enemy fortifications in small groups and throw grenades at them. Since 1667, each company had four grenadiers armed with a saber, an ax, and three or four grenades, which they carried in a bag slung over their shoulders. In 1671, he added a flint musket, and from those who had previously been dispersed in separate companies, they formed a regimental grenadier company of 35 people. Other armies followed suit and also began to form grenadier units.
They differed from all other infantry units in a headgear, which took its shape mainly for practical reasons: in order to light the fuse of a grenade before throwing it, the grenadier needed both hands, and to free them, he had to put the gun on his back. The wide-brimmed hat or cocked hat was too large and made it difficult to do so, so it was replaced with a more practical tassel cap. Over time, the headdresses of the grenadiers became more complex and high, and in England, Sweden, Russia, Denmark and Prussia, they became like a bishop's miter with a hammered metal forehead. Austria, France, Bavaria and Piedmont, however, continued to use the cheaper cap. Well, the image of a grenade with a lit wick was almost universally accepted by European grenadiers as their insignia.
And if the musketeers were put on horses, why not put the grenadiers on them? At first, they were listed in the same regiment as the dragoons, but at the beginning of the 18th century, separate squadrons and regiments were created from them. In England and France they formed part of the guard, while in Russia, Spain, Hanover and Saxony they were line units. In Austria, the grenadier companies of the dragoon regiments were used for special missions, although they were still considered dragoons. They later became elite heavy cavalry units. During the Napoleonic wars, they disappeared from the lists of the army, and only one regiment with this name remained in the French guard.
One can imagine how spectacular the attack of the mounted grenadiers looked as they rushed towards the enemy with a grenade in one hand and a smoking wick in the other. You need to quickly apply the fuse to the fuse, wait until the last hiss and then again at full gallop, sweeping along the ranks of the enemy infantry, skillfully throw it at the enemy's feet. Usually there were two grenades in the bag, each of them weighed 700-800 grams. And this "work" was very dangerous, which is why they refused it. After all, if something is almost wrong, as a grenade exploded in the hands of a grenadier with all the ensuing consequences.
Back in 1498, the Viennese gunsmith Kaspar Zoller, in order to increase the accuracy of the arquebus, developed a method of cutting four straight grooves in the barrel - rifling, and this is how the rifled weapon appeared. Then the rifling began to be made with screws. Increased accuracy. It became possible to make barrels shorter, so that the weapon became both lighter and less bulky. The French called it a carbine. Arab horsemen were also armed with similar weapons. In Arabic, "karab" means "weapon", and in Turkish "karabula" means "shooter". So the eastern origin of this name is also possible.
However, it is not the origin of the word that is important to us, but the fact that the new weapon was called a carbine and began to be widely used in the cavalry. They began to make them smooth-bore, and, although the main reason for their name (rifled barrel) has disappeared, the name has been preserved. Over time, the carbine began to be used as a shortened musket, whether rifled or not.
In 1679, Louis XIV (1643-1715) ordered carbines to be issued to the two best riflemen in each cavalry company of his line regiments. After the superior effectiveness of such horsemen, whose main targets were the officers of the enemy, was demonstrated, the king decided in 1693 to form a whole regiment of carabinieri and gave it the name of the Royal Carabinieri.
The Bavarian Elector Maximilian II Emmanuel, who had good political and family ties with the French court, followed his example and adopted the Carabinieri in 1696, and the term "carabinieri" became common in the Bavarian army.
In the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), Bavaria joined France, but the Franco-Bavarian army was defeated in 1704 at the Battle of Blenheim. The Bavarians retreated across the Rhine and, due to heavy losses, disbanded their three dragoon regiments (at that time they were considered light cavalry) in order to strengthen the three cuirassier regiments. Of the remaining 344 people, a six-squadron light cavalry regiment was formed, which was named Prince Philip's carabinieri in honor of the six-year-old son of Maximilian II.
As fate would have it, in their first campaign, during the Battle of Elixem (1705), Prince Philip's Carabinieri clashed with a regiment of British cavalry, also known as the Carabinieri. Heavy casualties took place on both sides, with the Bavarians losing their military standard, captured by the British. But … as a result of a counterattack by the cuirassiers from Cologne, the standard was repulsed and returned to the confused Bavarians.
Due to a weak influx of recruits, the regiment was disbanded in 1711, and its men joined other regiments.
It is clear that the "heavy riders" were unsuitable for solving many important tasks that were easily solved by light-horse riders. For example, hussars! During the Great Turkish campaign against Vienna (1683), Austria was devastated by both Turks and Tatars, and light Hungarian horsemen - hussars. They were led by Imre Thokli, a Hungarian prince who led the uprising against the Habsburgs. With the help of allied troops from Poland and the German states, the Austrians managed to defend Vienna, and then launch an offensive against Turkey. And just then, preparing for further campaigns to the east, the Austrian Emperor Leopold I founded the first regular Austrian hussar regiment (in 1688).
The Austrian army already had detachments of light horsemen, which could number up to 3,000 people. They were led by Hungarian and Croatian nobles who could change overnight, especially if the Viennese court tried to force them to fulfill their feudal duties. Therefore, Leopold ordered Count Adam Chobor to select 1,000 people and form them into an imperial hussar regiment, which would be paid from the imperial treasury, and by virtue of this, remain loyal to the crown. It was supposed to consist of men between the ages of 24 and 35 and have horses ranging in height from 140 to 150 cm, 5 and up to 7 years old. The regiment had ten companies of 100 hussars each. Officers of other Austrian regular cavalry units had a low opinion of the hussars, considering them "a little better than bandits on horseback." However, they proved to be very effective in combat. Therefore, in 1696, a second regiment was formed under the command of Colonel Dick, and there a third, commanded by Colonel Forgach, in 1702. The idea seemed sound, and the hussar was brought up in France (1692) and in Spain (1695).
